Ableton Forum

hi there,

i need some advices for the following idea.

during my liveset i want to use a software vocoder controlled by my voice via headset and by hand via master keyboard. it has to run on the same laptop as live. i would prefer the orange vocoder but i don't know if he can share the asio drive with live. and i don't know if he works standalone or only with a seperate vst host and if he receives midi data. live should be the only running sequencer (master) and the vocoder a seperate app on the same computer. is this possible?

i use a vaio (xp), hammerfall dsp and some midi controller.

Hi main,
the Orange Vocoder does all what you want in connection with live. It can be used as a VST-plug and its parameters are controllable via midi by making them visible with the live-interface (i.e., with the triangle). Then you can assign midi controllers to all individual parameters. After having done this, you can view your actions using the vocoders interface.

Regards Ralf

ralf,

thanks for the fast reply,

i still did not try but i don't want to control the orange parameters i would like to play the keys on orange (via a second keyboard). in this case the orange is more a vsti and as i know live does not support that.

main,
that´s right - you cannot play the keys via a midi keyboard in live. But you have two related opportunities: First, click with the mouse on the key area in orange vocoder, then you can shift the chords by means of the arrow keys of your computer keyboard. Second, you can assign the Modulation X-Y-ball of live´s effect window to "keyboard" and shift notes via the ball. This allows also some great effects.

Hope this helps and best regards
Ralf

Thanks a lot ralf,

but i want to play the keyboard like a piano not just as an effect. i had the idea to run bidule beside life with different midi/asio driver. i hope bidule supports this kind of audio routing.

if it works i'll report it .

main,
after a look into the orange vocoder´s manual, I am skeptical whether the vocoder´s keys can be played via midi at all. The manual contains only a description of using the cursor arrow keys, but there is essentially no hint on the use of an external midi keyboard. Thus, I think that the Bidule-idea will not work either, but let´s see.

Ralf

can you pre-sequence the Orange Vocoder keys? i'm not sure that would work, especially if it doesn't seem to respond to midi.

hulk,
you can either record any keymovements in the Orange Vovoder´s key area (using the mouse) as automation events, or you can use the effects envelopes to build any desired sequence of key movements (although the latter way is somewhat tedious because by just changing the respective envelope you do not really know what pitch information is generated, this is a trial and error process (but good for effects)).

Ralf

i tried it with bidule but the experiment failed because of the sharing of asio drivers between bidule an live.

you can control it with a seperate synth as carrier (?) (as i do in logic using orange as simple "signal mixer") but i could not implement the sound into live via rewire.

maybe i try to get a cheap hardware (microkorg is great but too expensive and i don't like the small keys). Any suggestions?

Try NI Vokator (truly dope app. in and of itself, imho. Takes a bit of time to fully appreciate, but it's worth it).
Maybe use Soundflower to get audio from one place to another, but run Vokator as a separate app. I am working on a similar concept, I'll post if I come up with something good.

Alternatively, Vokator has internal step sequencers which can (in addition to many other things) control notes, or even sequences of chords. I am still trying to get the hang of it, need to update to current version of vokator.

Thanks for the respond.

I think my main problem is that I have a multiface that does not share Midi driver with another app. If it would do I would try vokator in Bidule via rewire. But that did not work.